Heavy Metal Reviews

conversation with Ed McRae and Stuart Paice

YOUR
DEMISE are back
with their third record „The Golden Age“. It
is the second one to feature Ed McRae on vocals. It shows a far more
melodic side of the Brits which once fuelled moshpits with aggressive
anthems such as Burnt
Tongues or
The Blood Stays
On The Blade.
McRae and guitarist Stuart Paice answer some questions about their
new output “The Golden Age”, life on the road and
what they do
besides the band.

Cologne
today is
the first show of your European tour. Are you excited for this?

The
new record,
“The Golden Age” is a lot different than the
previous ones. Where
did you get the confidence to do something
very different?

EM:
Fuck it! We just wrote
the record we wanted to write and just hope that people like it.

SP: We
did not dismiss
anything. If we thought a particular idea is cool than we used it and
didn’t think too much about what people might think of it.

These
Lights is the new
single, a fine pop punk song. What were the reactions like?

SP:
Weird! Some very good,
some…

EM:
Some not so good. But
we don’t care about it, honestly.

SP:
Kids are talking about
it and I think some kids are just talking about it to get a reaction.

EM: And
at the UK shows
kids liked the new stuff.

There
are many guest
vocalists featured on “The Golden Age”. How did
that come? Had
you someone particular in mind while writing the song?

SP: No,
we just asked our
friends if they wanted to be part of it. Some really wanted to be on
the record.

Were
there any singers
you’ve asked who did not want to be on your record or did not
have
the time to contribute something to it?

EM: Of
course. You can’t
have everyone you wanted.

SP:
Some of them are
living in America, so it’s hard to get them into a studio and
send
their stuff to us. But it worked out very well.

EM:
We’ve got Jason from
TERROR and DOWN FROM NOTHING on it. Fame! (laughs)

Who
is your favourite
guest vocalist?

EM:
Oh, that’s
hard to say. It’s like picking your favourite child. That’s
hard, I’d say everyone. They are all good and they do their
bit.

And
what was the
songwriting like? Obviously it’s very different than usually.

SP:
Easy. The songwriting
went very quickly. And the production was cool as well. We were most
prepared. Because it went to well, at the end we were like
‘That’s
it?’. We recorded with Matty O’Grady, who had done
the YOU ME AT
SIX record.

You’ve
also been part
of a BBC session. How did it come to this? In Germany you
don’t
hear a lot of hardcore in the radio.

SP: In
the UK it’s more
crossover. And we’ve always been more accessible and have
toured
with bands like THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA or ENTER SHIKARI.

EM:
We’ve recorded four
songs. It was a really cool thing to do.

In
an interview with
Rocksound magazine you’ve mentioned that you are no longer
part of
the UK hardcore scene. What does that mean to you?

EM:
We’ve always been
part of it and we’ve got our roots in the UK hardcore scene.
It’s
tricky because…

SP:
I wouldn’t say
we’re not a part of it. But we spread our wings a little bit.

EM: But
we don’t play
hardcore in that way, we try to do different things. We’ve
got our
roots in hardcore but we progressed over the years.

Ed,
you’ve been the
singer for more than three years by now. What do you think? Are there
still people longing for the old YOUR DEMISE?

SP: You
can’t make
everyone happy. There are always people complaining.

EM: I
mean, I’m in the
band for nearly as long as he has been. Some people have forgotten
that there was an old singer, some do not even know that there was
another singer. If people want the old YOUR DEMISE, I’m okay
with
that…

SP:
… they are
dickheads, haha!

Let’s
talk about
touring. What are the pros and cons of a touring lifestyle?

SP: You
see a lot of
places, but you’re always missing your family, girlfriends
and
friends at home.

EM:
Having no money.

Are
you still working?

EM:
Yeah, I work in a shoe
shop selling sneakers. I love sneakers, so that’s a cool job.

What
was your favourite
tour so far?

SP:
It’s been so many
by now. Our last European headline tour with STICK TO YOUR GUNS,
BREAK EVEN and LETLIVE was amazing.

EM: I
think we go into
every tour with a positive attitude. I never had the experience of a
bad time on tour. Of course there are times I’m like
‘I’m
tired, I want to go home’, but it’s not like I hate
it. It’s
just temporary.

What
are you going to
do when YOUR DEMISE calls it a day?

EM:
I’m becoming what I
was supposed to do, becoming a hair dresser, haha.